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UNESCO launches new Teacher Strategy for 2012-2015

One of the 3, 000 Afghan teachers trained by UNICEF on Healthy School Initiative, jointly sponsored by the government and the children's agency, teaches children about their environment, including safe play areas and sanitation in schools.

UNESCO is launching its teacher strategy for 2012-2015 to introduce its priorities, action lines and role in relation to teachers. The strategy aims to provide a framework for the whole range of activities that UNESCO will develop from 2012 to 2015.

The main emphasis of the strategy is on supporting teachers for quality learning. Capitalizing on the previous experiences and on the applications of the TTISSA (Teacher Training Initiative for Sub-Saharan Africa) methodology and other UNESCO teacher-related programmes, UNESCO identified three priorities to drive the strategy:

Research, knowledge production and Communication: Inform the global debate about teaching with comparative evidence.

Ultimately the strategy intends to configure a teaching force that works in an environment that rewards professional improvement and that is committed to improve the opportunities for student learning with well qualified and duly supported teaching practices. The Strategy provides an overall framework for a new initiative on teachers, aimed at accelerating progress towards EFA goals. The new initiative is (provisionally) called “Quality Teachers for EFA. The UNESCO Initiative for Teachers’ Capacity Development in Priority Countries” and will soon be released as an additional document.

The launch of the teachers strategy is part of the 2012 World Teachers’ Day celebration. “Take a stand for teachers” is the slogan of World Teachers’ Day this year which UNESCO is celebrating along with the International Labour Organization, UNDP, UNICEF and Education International.